Big Top Chan

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE CIRCUS-1936-This entry begins with Charlie (Warner Oland) and his wife (Annie Mar) and 12 children visiting the circus and talking to 2 little people, Col. Tim (George Brasno) and Lady Tiny (Olive Brasno) both dancers. One of the owners Kinney (Paul Stanton) approaches Chan and says he’s received some threatening letters. Chan agrees to meet him later during the show. We also learn Kinney's partner John Gaines (Francis Ford) owes him a lot of money and if he can't pay he’ll lose his half of the circus. He also has a problem with Cesar the gorilla (Charles Gemora) who he whips and then fires its trainer. Later with the help of Col. Tim and a giant (John Aasen) Chan discovers Kinney dead in a locked room inside his wagon. Then it’s found that the abused ape has escaped its cage! A phony mystic John Holt (J.Carrol Naish) helps subdue Cesar when he attacks Chan. No.1 son Lee (Keye Luke) and police chief Macy (Wade Boteler) try to figure things out (Lee also pursues a Asian contortionist). Lady Tiny visits the Chan Clan at their hotel to try and convince Charlie to help find Kinney's killer but he declines as he’s on vacation with his family. However Mrs. Chan and their kids convince him to help. Charlie and Jimmy join the circus to investigate. The first night a cobra slithers into the elder Chan's bed but Jimmy shoots it, It seems Kinney was engaged to the star trapeze artist Marie Norman but was married to Nellie (Drue Layton),who works in the costume dept. To trail her Lee  dresses as a woman with Tim as his cigar smoking baby! Later when Nellie proclaims that she will inherit half the circus trapeze artist Norman claims she can prove that Kinney and Nellie we're not legally married but first she has to perform. Bad decision. Someone fires a rifle cutting one of the ropes. She falls but doesn't die. Charlie sets a trap and discovers the real culprit. They can't make a monkey out of Charlie Chan!

 Director Harry Lachman made OUR RELATIONS with Laurel & Hardy the same year. He later made more in the Chan series. George and Olive Brasno were a real life brother/sister singing act who were very popular and successful in their day. 

Followed by CHARLIE CHAN AT THE RACE TRACK.

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More Weissmuller

JUNGLE MOON MEN-1955-Johnny Weissmuller plays Johnny Weissmuller who bares a strong resemblance to Jungle Jim in this low budget adventure (it's because the studio lost the rights to the JJ character). He helps a woman writer (Jean Bryon) try and find the source of life but instead runs into a tribe of “little men” (lead by Billy Curtis). Myron Healey is a trouble making guide looking for diamonds. The small safari captures the little leader and ties him to a tree. At night the rest of the tribe (Angelo Rossetto is there) disguises themselves as trees to save their leader. They also kidnap Bryon's macho boyfriend Bob (Bill Henry) and tie him to a tree. It turns out the tribe is working for “the moon goddess Oma (Helen Stanton from THE PHAN-TOM FROM 10,000 LEAGUES the same year)) a blond haired white woman with ties to ancient Egypt! She wants to make Bob her high priest. In the end runaway lions ruin her empire and “Ra, the sun god” turns Oma into dust. 

This typical Sam Katzman Columbia production seems to choose the most un-African sets it can find (this was filmed on stuntman Crash Corrigan's ranch). JUNGLE MOON MEN is one of only a handful of movies Charles S. Gould directed as he was a busy assistant or second unit director.

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Have A Cigar

 

 

LITTLE CIGARS-1973-Unusual crime drama (released by AIP) with Angel Tompkins (who had just appeared in Playboy) as a floozy on the run from her crime boss former lover who hooks up with a group of “little people” (in this also referred to as “midgets”) who use a dumb show to cover up their low level crimes. Their leader Slick (Billy Curtis) and Angel become lovers and she teams up with the group to commit robberies (a movie theater, a laundry, a bank) where their diminutive size comes in handy. Later they have a violent falling out and Slick and Angel wind up hawking candy bars at an abandoned carnival site. It's very low budget, preposterous and doesn't show dwarfs in a very good light but it was nice to see little people in the lead roles with lots of dialogue and not just being patsies or evil assistants. Angelo Rossetto appears in a police line up and Michael Pataki has a small role as a mechanic.

 

This is the only feature length movie made by Chris Christenberry who was usually a second unit director. Co-screenwriter Louis Garfinkle had written I BURY THE LIVING and later provided the story for THE DEERHUNTER! Frank Ray Perilli, the other writer later wrote LASERBLAST and DRACULA'S DOG.

 

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Cowboy Musical

TERROR OF TINY TOWN-1938-Everyone's favorite little peoples western begins with a narrator addressing the audience.

Billy Curtis is the cheerful hero Buck Lawson. He battles cattle rustler Bat Haines ("Litte Billy" Rhodes), a really mean guy who's trying to cause a range war between Buck's father (John Bambury) and another rancher named Tex Preston (Billy Platt). The highlight for me are the very bizarre musical numbers but it has all the elements of a regular low budget western: shoot outs, runaway stagecoach, crooked sheriff, hired gunslingers, outrageous make-up, bad acting, chiched script. The funniest character is Tex's German cook. Buck (who sings and plays guitar) falls in love with Tex's niece (Yvonne Moray) to complicate matters. Later Haines kills Tex and Buck is blamed. He's almost lynched but Haines' neglected girlfriend (Nita Krebs) clears him. In the climax Buck and Hanes duke it out in a cabin while dynamite burns in the basement.

Some of the cast would appear in THE WIZARD OF OZ the next year.

TERROR was directed by San Newfield who typically made 15 other features in 1938!

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